Ceres

Ceres Church

Ceres is an ancient village lying three miles south of
Cupar in Eastern
Fife. The village was certainly well
established by the time of the Battle of Bannockburn on 24
June 1314. A year after the return of local men who had taken part in the
battle alongside Robert the
Bruce, a village games was staged. The Ceres Games have been held annually
on the last Saturday in June ever since, making them the oldest games in
Scotland.

Overlooking the large green on which the Ceres Games are held, is a
more modern memorial to Bannockburn and the men of
Ceres who fought there. Sadly, 1314 was not the last time local men left
Fife to go to war for their King or
Queen and Country. 120 local men formed part of the Fife
and Forfar Light Horse which took part in the Boer War.

And then, in the year of the 600th anniversary of the
Battle of Bannockburn,
local men volunteered in large numbers at the outbreak of the First World War.
The Roll of Honour in the Village Hall and Parish Church show the large number
of men from the Parish of Ceres who gave their lives between 1914 and 1918, and
then again between 1939 and 1945.

Ceres was probably named after St Cyr, an early Christian martyr.
Its early history is closely linked with the histories of the local landholding
families. These included the Hopes of Craighall Castle, which once stood
¾ of a mile south east of the village. Also influential locally was the
Inglis family, who built Scotstarvit Tower two miles
west of Ceres in the 1500s. Sir John Scott, who purchased
Scotstarvit Tower in
1611, held a number of high offices of state, including Director of Chancery,
Lord of Session, and Privy Councillor. Scott is said to have travelled to
London on Government business no fewer that 24 times: a serious piece of
commuting in the days before railways or steam ships.

It was the Hopes of Craighall who made Ceres a Burgh of Barony in
1620, giving it a number of trading rights that allowed it to develop into a
focus of the local area (though never one that was to compete with
Cupar to the north). The bridge over
the Ceres Burn that existed when Blaeu mapped the area in 1642 still exists
today, though it is now for pedestrian use only.

Ceres is a remarkably unspoiled and attractive village. As you
wander the streets you do - except for the parked cars - get a sense of
travelling back in time. The focus of the village is marked by the Ceres Burn
and the Main Street that parallels its east bank. At the north end of the Main
Street you find Ceres Church, built here in 1806 on the site of a medieval
church. Nearby is Meldrums Hotel, and the Griselda Hill Pottery, which now
produces Wemyss Ware pottery.

The southern end of Main Street lies nearer the historical heart of
Ceres. Nearby you find the modern bridge over the Ceres Burn; the Ceres Inn;
and, housed in the old tolbooth, the Fife Folk Museum, which opened here in
1968.

Also nearby is a statue housed in a niche in a wall. This depicts
the Reverend Thomas Buchanan, who served as the last church provost in 1578.
This statue has stood in a number of different locations in this part of the
village since it was initially carved in the mid 1800s by John Howie of
Saughtree. Beneath the statue is a carved panel, also by John Howie, depicting
the Battle of Bannockburn.